Wrongful death suit filed against VA in Mass. soldier's suicide

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/26/wrongful_death_suit_filed_against_va_in_mass_soldiers_suicide">LINK

The family of an Iraq war veteran from Massachusetts filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson of negligence in the suicide death of their son. The lawsuit says the VA is to blame for the death of 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey, a Marine who killed himself in June 2004 after he allegedly was denied mental health care following a tour in Iraq.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Springfield, Mass., seeks unspecified damages and names Nicholson, who is leaving his job, and the U.S. government as defendants.

The action comes just days after the group Veterans for Common Sense sued Nicholson and the VA on behalf of injured Iraq war veterans. That lawsuit accuses the agency of unlawfully denying the veterans disability pay and mental health treatment.

Lucey's father, Kevin, says he and his wife hope their lawsuit will force the Bush administration to take swift action to fix the VA.

"They've got to look at the entire system of the VA," said Lucey, who spoke from his home in Belchertown, Mass. "We're hoping that it goes to trial and that people can truly see how dysfunctional the system is." Kevin and Joyce Lucey joined the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out after their son's death.

A message left for Nicholson was not immediately returned.

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Keep their feet to the fire! :woohoo:

And much love & respect to all of the Vets caught up in this.

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